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Like many home buyers, when I was ready to sign the contract to purchase my home here, 18 years ago I requested a copy of the CC&Rs to make sure that there was nothing I would not be able to live with in the rules.Being an animal lover, the first thing I looked for was restrictions on pets. After that I scanned the rest of the documents, one item has stuck in my mind over the years. No Garage Sales on individual lots were permitted.
When the Community Wide Garage Sales were moved from the parking lot at Anthem Center and became, literally community wide just by signing up for them, it made quite a few residents very uneasy because management printed up maps of the community, home addresses and names, marking all the homes that had signed up to participate in the sales.
My problem with this is that our robbery rate has risen considerably in the last year and one reason might be that these sales are advertised in the newspaper, on banners around the loop and such. They bring many strangers cruising the villages in our community that normally would not venture up here.
A group of concerned residents, including myself, met with a group from management and board member Wendy Linow to voice our concerns.
I mentioned that by Nevada statute, any time a board of directors wants to change something in the CC&Rs it must go to a vote of the owners before that can be done. I never received such a request. Ms. Linow told me that the board had discussed it with their legal counsel, Adam Clarkson and he said, if the Community Wide Garage Sale was sponsored by the HOA it was permissible.
A week or two later I received a letter from Ms. Linow saying that;
To the best of my knowledge, Adam Clarkson was not consulted when the parking lot sales were discontinued, and community-wide garage sales began. The City of Henderson was consulted. City Staff was asked about one Spring and one Fall community-wide garage sale each year. The city was fine with two sales.
She added, we discussed the following provision from the CC&Rs:
3 .1. Restrictions on Use Occupancy and Alienation.
(c) Business Use. No business or trade, garage sale, moving sale, rummage sale, or similar activity shall be conducted in or from any Dwelling Unit or Lot…”
Ms. Linow continued, As we discussed, this provision applies to individual residents and not community-wide garage sales sanctioned by the Association. James clarified that individual garage sales are prohibited. If a resident conducts a garage sale, non-compliance correspondence has been, and continues to be, sent to the non-compliant resident.
I know that it is next to impossible for a board of directors to succeed in getting enough owners to vote when they wish to change a rule in the CC&Rs, however if we, as owners must comply with the rules and regulations that were in our signed contract, it is not acceptable to me for a board or management to bend those rules to suit their own wishes.
Lets face it, by cruising our streets it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what homes are owned by those more affluent than others by the landscape, appointments to the home, and other costly additions. That might be an interesting way to pick a robbery target.
WHAT SAY YOU readers, we would love to hear your thoughts?
Interesting that the Board President, Stephen Anderson, only recently posted a verbose article in which he went on about how we must all “live by” the rules and regulations to keep our community “looking good and maintaining aesthetic appeal”. He also stated that we all must “live by” these rules, not just “your neighbor but also for you”. “The rules that every resident has agreed to live by…” have changed not to the betterment of the community but rather to its detriment.
There is nothing about having strangers driving through our local streets and parking wherever they feel it is convenient that makes our community “look good”. Certainly, displaying junk in the neighbors’ driveways does nothing to “maintain aesthetic appeal”.
The rules that once helped entice some of us to move to this community have been abandoned in favor of a few who cannot be bothered to bring their “old stuff” to the parking lot at Anthem Center or sell their wares on a myriad of websites that accommodate same.
Further, when we moved to the community it was clear that estate sales were not permissible. That rule too has been abandoned in favor of allowing constant estate sale s and many of those are not because it is a true “estate”‘ being sold off, but because residents are trying to get around the “no private garage sale rules”. In changing the rules to accommodate residents (some of whom have no vested interest, since they are renters, the Board has diminished our community and made it very common in addition to causing potential for more illegal activities.
The Management must love the idea of the neighborhood garage sales in lieu of the Parking Lot sales since they no longer have to deal with the work that entails for them in set up and coordinating same in favor of a map directing strangers to our neighborhoods and homes.
Some complain that it is too difficult for them to move their items to the Parking Lot at Anthem Center – well, to quote Stephen Anderson “please remember you have agreed to follow and abide by these rules”. You knew when you purchased or rented a home here there were no garage sales allowed at all.
I am very disappointed that this new way of life is becoming part of our community.
I, too, dislike the community garage sales taking place in driveways within neighborhoods. It lowers the overall exclusivity of our community and creates the situation of outsiders cruising through our streets and parking density during the events. I don’t understand why we cannot return to the parking lot sale, done annually.
Forwarded by a resident who asks that I use her first name only.
By Julie SCA resident
From the beginning I have been against the Community wide garage sale. The opportunity for crime has increased in our community because of them. We don’t know if people are actually going to the garage sales or casing houses to rob. With the incident next door at Solera where the owners got tazed and forced to open their safe this idea seems risky. It would be very bad publicity for SCA if something similar happened because people are inviting strangers into their properties. Bad publicity lowers real estate values as do garage sales. I also see individual garage sale signs up now. The image of SCA has diminished.
It is a lot more work setting up a garage sale than it is bringing some items to the parking lot sale. Also the vendor fee is income for the community and it becomes a social event with neighbors getting together. If a Parking lot sale could be combined with a Farmers Market and food trucks it could become a popular event.
I want to thank those of you who have expressed your opinions on garage sales. The board and management evaluate after each community wide garage sale as to hold more in the future or in how to make alterations. We do look at the crime data for a period after each sale. The last report I saw was from July where it was reported that we had 8 burglaries. When I was Chief of the Community Patrol back in 2015 and 2016 SCA typically had anywhere from 4 to 10 burglaries each month. With the exception of Pinnacle Village, we are an open community where people intent on burglary can case our community anytime. I doubt that they wait for the garage sales we hold twice a year.
There are any number of options that include having one community wide garage sale event in half of the community and then later having another in the other half of the community; hold just one sale a year rather than two; going back to having parking lot sales; or having none and having people call charities that pick up to come take large items.
Parking lot sales do require a great deal of work and extra time for facilities and event staff to put out cones, set up tables, etc. The Community Patrol typically has done traffic direction during the events in the past. While most people are friendly, I can remember individuals swearing at Patrol members and driving over cones during the time that I was involved. People also complained about the lack of parking to go to the fitness center. Having the parking lot sale along with a Farmer’s Market sounds like a good deal, but the problem is that with both going on there would very few places for people to park.
Personally I am not invested in doing one over another. I was on the Board when the decision was made to try the community wide garage sales due to a number of people suggesting them. Personally, I donate items I do not want to charity.
This is one of those issues where any decision will be disliked by a number of people and liked by another group of people. What is great is being able to hear your voices and I want to thank Rana for asking the question and to thank those of you who have expressed your opinions.
This past weekend was the above mentioned Community Wide Garage Sale. It really made a point for those against these sales when I spotted hand written signs on paper taped to a real estate “A Frame” and one taped to a cardboard box on Anthem Parkway with direction arrows to a home participating in the sale.
We are supposed to be an up-scale community, sure does not look that way with signs like that.. I think it is time to check the legality of the sales when our CC&Rs are very clear about not allowing them at our homes. Those covenants don’t say a word about it being OK if the HOA sponsors them!
I too saw many unsightly homemade signs posted around the community- one appeared to be spray painted on a bedsheet and was large and distracting to drivers on Anthem Parkway which in and of itself is a danger. If the community is going to sponsor the garage sales then there should only be professional signs posted at strategic locations. From what I’ve seen on Nextdoor, residents were not even happy with the turn out. The whole thing is a big waste and diminishes the quality of our community
Being a new resident, I thought it would be fun to drive around the neighborhood on Saturday to all/some of the addresses of the participants listed. I kept to my list of addresses and also veered off, following signs that said “garage sale “. I found only three of the houses listed were participating. The signs I followed, were basically, dead ends. It was 10:30 am I was thinking why houses listed and signs still up, where /why are they not participating? One gentleman told me he shut down because very few people came. Maybe it was better received on Friday??? Was it a mixture of bad signage & advertising? Perhaps if more people were interested in doing this again it could be done by villages and have sale village captains. Just a thought.
It was nice having the Charity trucks at the parking lot sales to take whatever we didn’t want to cart back home or deal with a pick up and a tax deductible donation to boot. Easy to go from space to space and the shredder truck was also a perk. Wonderful for the service groups to make face to face contact with residents. It would be a replacement opportunity now that the Home Expo has been eliminated. Perhaps volunteers could assist with setting up cones and tables.
Phyll makes a lot of sense. I wish the Board wound reconsider how they approach “sales”.
The “Estate Sales” have become a weekly occurrence and often more than one. Today I started counting the neon green signs but stopped at 30 – up and down Anthem pkwy as well as Somersworth – how does this enhance our community? Up until a few years ago this was not allowed.
I know that “Estate Sales” are supposed to be different than “Garage Sales” and they must ask for permission plus there is a limited time period. Perhaps those rules can be put out to the community.
If they are a “legal”estate sale then perhaps it might be an idea to have conforming SCA directional signs available for purchase at the membership office and limited to the number of turns necessary to find the address.
However most residents have GPS or a map so we don’t need signs on every light pole. We do have ad space available in our RELAY in the SPIRIT magazine for sales as well.
Phyll
Regarding Community Wide Garage Sales – NO I am not for them. On day one of the latest Community Garage Sale, we came home from shopping and found three older model cars sitting in a row in front of our house and our next-door neighbor’s house. They were even blocking our driveway. As soon as we tried to get into our driveway, all three cars drove off. There was not a garage sale happening on our block but there were sales one block over.
This was very suspicious to me, and I did manage to get one license plate and reported it to the police on “311”.
Like many home buyers, when I was ready to sign the contract to purchase my home here, 18 years ago I requested a copy of the CC&Rs to make sure that there was nothing I would not be able to live with in the rules.
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